CFI releases and analysis from 2011:

The Campaign Finance Institute today is releasing its analysis of the third-quarter campaign finance reports filed by U.S. House and Senate candidates in October. Summarized in a series of six tables, the analysis compares the incumbent, challenger and open seat candidates in 2011 with those of 2003, 2005, 2007 and 2009. The tables are listed below.

The Republican presidential field has separated into two tiers – perhaps two and a half. Mitt Romney and Rick Perry sit clearly on top, with about $15 million each in cash on hand to take on the early primaries and caucuses. Ron Paul is in a middle range, with $8.3 million in receipts between July 1 and Sept. 30, 2011 and $3.7 million in hand. Then there is a big gap to all of the others.

On September 30, the presidential candidates of 2012 will close their financial books for the third quarter of 2011. Their official reports are not due to be filed at the Federal Election Commission until October 15, but we can be sure there will be a great deal of press coverage of whatever information the candidates choose to make available on September 30.

The following article appeared in The Boston Review on Monday, July 25, 2011 as part of their Leadership, Free to Lead forum on campaign-finance reform. Michael J. Malbin was invited to respond to an article that was edited from the transcript of a speech that Governor Charles “Buddy” Roemer gave at the Edmond J. Safra Center for Ethics at Harvard University

On Friday July 15, presidential hopefuls filed what for many was their first official campaign finance reports as candidates for the 2012 campaign season. While major story lines were reported quickly in news accounts, the Campaign Finance Institute has delayed reporting until we were able to put the filings through CFI’s standardized procedures. This lets us compare the candidates of 2012 not only with each other, but with their predecessors in 2008.

The Campaign Finance Institute (CFI) released a new report today on public campaign financing in the wake of two important Supreme Court decisions. The form of public financing at the heart of this report involves low-donor matching funds without a spending limit. The research was based on an analysis of data from recent elections in six Midwestern states.

Many presidential campaigns will be giving out summaries of their fundraising receipts after the 2nd quarter closes today, even though the official disclosure reports will not be available until July 15th. Since each campaign will put the best light on its own results, we thought it useful to offer some historical information to let readers judge on their own.

The Supreme Court’s holding in the Arizona public financing case will create problems for the current full public funding systems in Arizona, Maine and Connecticut. But it is important to underline what the decision did not do.